Richard and Nikolai Viktorov, USSR, 1981, 35mm,118 min

Boldly going where no man has gone before, the starship Pushkin finds an abandoned vessel in deep space filled with the decaying bodies of humanoids. There is, however, one surviving member of the crew, a gynoid (female android) named Niya who seeks the help of earthlings to restore her now severely polluted home planet of Dessa to its natural splendor. Pitched exclusively to a teenage audience and unashamed of it, this delirious space adventure features bionic women, cosmic mercenaries, and the most embarrassing guy-in-a-suit robot to never utter “Danger, Will Robinson.” After the fall of the USSR, it inevitably became a cult hit among the Russian hipster set. In 2001, under the supervision of the director’s son, the film enjoyed a full restoration and was saved after nearly being lost. -Robert Skotak

NOTE: The original version of the film (pre 2001) is known to MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 fans as HUMANOID WOMAN, and was written by renowned science-fiction author Kir Bulychev, whose novel ONE HUNDRED YEARS AHEAD was the basis of the Russian mini-series GUEST FROM THE FUTURE.